I. Field of the Disclosure
The technology of the disclosure relates generally to memory elements and particularly to management of memory elements.
II. Background
Computing devices rely on memory and software stored therein to enable many functions. Mobile computing devices, such as smart phones, are one example of a computing device that uses software stored in memory to enable many functions. One such function is the control of the wireless modems that enable wireless communications. While such functionality could be enabled in strictly hardware, such an implementation may be unnecessarily complex, difficult to upgrade, hard to test and space prohibitive. Thus, some amount of functionality will be instantiated through software, and the device must have appropriate memory to store the software.
As noted above, one such function that is typically software enabled is the functionality of the wireless modem(s) of the mobile computing devices. While different portions of the industry may refer to such software by different terms, as used herein, such software is referred to as the modem subsystem (MSS) code. The MSS code is relatively large and must be accessed with some regularity with low latency. In some devices, the MSS code may be stored in direct random access memory (DRAM). However, DRAM is relatively expensive, and such expense may render the device commercially unattractive in the highly competitive mobile computing device market.
Some designers may move the MSS code to a remote memory element, such as a negative AND (NAND) storage element. However, NAND storage elements typically have too much latency to be practical. Thus, designers need improved techniques to allow low latency, relatively inexpensive access to software such as the MSS code.